When the World Comes Crashing Down
by everdancer
Summary: Rachel is pregnant, and Puck doesn't know. Puckleberry. Two-shot. Entry into Baby Mama Drama and Knight in Shining Armor. T for language.
1. Chapter 1

**The Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee. Duh.

**The Challenge: **So this is my own person challenge, making one story fit the needs of two story challenges –kaycedilla2011's Knight in Shining Armor Challenge and .Pink.'s Baby Mama Drama Challenge. Wish me luck!

**The Story Background: **The roles are reversed – Quinn never slept with Puck and isn't pregnant. Rachel and Puck dated briefly, and one of the nights they got very drunk and had sex. Rachel was so disgusted with herself for giving in that she's refused to talk to Puck since.

When The World Comes Crashing Down

**In the Third Person**

Rachel runs her hand through her hair, pushing it up and over her head like she's putting it into a ponytail. It's a nervous habit, something she hardly ever does. But in this moment, she's grateful for it because the hair stays in place as she spins the dial on her locker. The door sticks a bit, but she pulls hard and it opens a moment later. She thanks her lucky stars that nothing fell out, eyeing her spare pencil case. The secret it held. She got queasy just thinking about it. She pushed it out of her mind, threw her history binder in and took out her chemistry folder, shoving it unceremoniously into her bag. Her eyes fall for a second on the calendar that she's posted on the inner side of the door. That Saturday, with a big blue circle around it and _doctor's appointment_ scribbled across the bottom. Just looking at it made her stomach feel a bit warmer, a bit more present. It wasn't her normal yearly appointment with her pediatrician, but her first of a long series of appointments that in seven months would result in . . . she couldn't think about it. Not now. Not here. She slams the locker shut, and tries to spin the dial, but it sticks. She silently curses whichever Neanderthal owned the locker before her and messed it up so badly. She opens the door again and some of her magnets fall onto her. She hears a giggle behind her. Quinn. Burning with embarrassment, Rachel picks up the magnets, spelling them out in her hand. R-E-N-T, W-I-C-K-E-D. There, that was all of them. She sticks them back up and slams the locker shut. Thankfully, this time the lock spins easily and she rushes off to class.

Across the hallway, Jacob trips and his books come tumbling down. He scrambles to pick them up as a couple of jocks laugh. Tina, a girl he hardly knows but has seen many times before, bends down and hands him a pile of books. He thanks her as he stands up and quickly leaves, ducking into his classroom. As he settles into his back row seat, Jacob notices the pencil case on top of his pile of books. Tina must have accidentally given him her case. He picks it up, searching for some kind of clue as to when he can return it to her. A schedule or something, but the back pockets are empty. The bag is light in his hands, and there is only one object inside. It's the right weight and size for a marker. Why keep a bag for just one marker? He goes to unzip it before noticing a name scribbled beneath the zipper. Rachel Michele Berry. Intrigued even more – dirt on Rachel was worth a lot more than dirt on Tina – he unzips the bag and sticks his hand in, pulling out the wand. He holds it behind his pile of books so that no one will see whatever it is.

It takes him only a second to recognize the object. He's seen it a thousand times in commercials. "The most sophisticated piece of technology you will ever pee on". He remembers the advertisement all too well. The digital read out is simple, leaving no guess work for the avid blogger.

Rachel Berry, self-proclaimed McKinley High Queen of all that was musical theater, was pregnant.

--

_The Next Day_

"How dare you," Quinn growls, her voice low and menacing. Rachel braced herself for the onslaught, holding her books tight in her hands. Stay calm, she reminds herself, don't get upset. "How dare you flirt with my boyfriend you man-hands theater freak slut. Everyone knows what you are. You think you're so much better than everyone else, but really you're the lowest of the low. So stop flirting with Finn, because you don't have a chance." She ordered, pushing Rachel back with each word. "He. Is. MINE." Rachel feels her mind spin as she tries to come up with a cool, collected comeback. Too late, she realizes, it's her stomach that's spinning and not her brain. She knows running away will look cowardly but she'd much rather be thought a coward than throw up in front of the entire student body. (Although she does consider it for a moment - watching Quinn's face as the slimy puke covered her cheerios uniform would be amusing)

Rachel turns on the spot and runs into the closest bathroom. She pushes past a pile of jocks that includes Puck. He saw the whole thing, and like everybody else assumes that she's crying and upset by Quinn's words. It wouldn't be the first time. But unlike the others, he's actually talked to her. He knows that inside of her tough outer shell is a girl more vulnerable and self-conscious than any other girl he's ever met. While some of the jocks high-five Quinn he can't help but feel disgusted with himself. With them. How could he let them hurt her? They didn't know the first thing about her. What gave them the right to tease her, when she'd done nothing wrong?

"Hey Puck," Mike said, "didya see what Jacob wrote about Berry on his blog? I mean jeez, talk about a surprise-" He didn't know what made him do it, but suddenly Mike was in his hands, dangling an inch above the ground. He pushed Mike backwards and the heavy jock skidded onto his butt.

"Ow." Mike complains standing up. "What the fuck was that for, Puckerman?" But Puck's already turned around and walking the other way.

--

It doesn't take long until the school officers catch up with him. He is very quickly given a two day suspension and kicked out unceremoniously. Well, just fucking peachy he thinks. He can't go home. He can't let his mother now that he's been suspended for the second time this semester. But nowhere else in town is open. That was the problem with this stupid town. If you weren't in school there was absolutely nothing to do.

So he gets in his car and drives to the next parking lot over, a supermarket that really isn't all that super. A thin wood separates the store from the school. He gets out of the car and goes into the store, buys himself a lunch and eats it. He flips through the radio stations, but nothing good is on. He could do homework, but what was the point in it. So instead he chucks the remains of his potato chips into the trash and walks around the building and into the thin woods. If he can't go to school he can at least watch the sophomores and freshmen struggle through gym. That, at least, he can get a kick out of.

The trees line the football field and its circular track, coming up against the scoreboard that towers over the stadium. The kids are doing a running exercise – run the straights, walk the curves. That's what the teacher always told them. It was supposed to teach endurance and knowing how much is too much for your body. Puck can clearly remember running past everyone just because he could, and then getting yelled at by the teacher.

He watches the people going past, trying to recognize them. The first twelve people are unrecognizable. Then he spots one of the cheerios, not someone he knows by name, but still. Behind her are two girls, walking slower than the others. He recognizes the blue-streaked hair first, so distinctive. Then he sees Rachel's wavy brown hair, scooped into a ponytail. She's talking loudly, explaining some play called _Hairspray _to Tina, who looks bored as hell. Why can't Berry ever keep her mouth shut, he wonders.

The kids run around again. He watches some freshmen shove each other to keep from getting bored. The teacher calls out a time – two more minutes. Berry and Tina are last now, just reaching the curve. They'll never make it in time, he thinks.

Suddenly, a searing pain overwhelms Rachel. She doubles over, her arms hugging her stomach. It feels like a bad period cramp, only ten times worse. She cries out, and Tina comes to her side immediately. As Puck watches, Rachel begins to cry as Tina pleads with her to get up.

"I can't!" Rachel cries, "It hurts! It hurts!"

Puck's heart is beating faster than it ever has in his life. The girls aren't doing anything and the teacher hasn't noticed them. None of them have a cell phone on them, but he does. He immediately calls nine-one-one.

"911," a calm voices answers, and Puck wonders how anyone with a job like hers can be so calm, "what's your emergency?"

"My friend, she's in a lot of pain." He stutters a bit, cursing himself for being so goddamn nervous. "She's crying and she's clutching her stomach." He knows that he needs to get closer to her so that he can find out more to tell the operator. As he watches Rachel cries out again. Tina's face is pale with fright as she finally runs off to get the teacher. Fuck his suspension, Puck thinks, this is an emergency. He jumps the fence easily and runs over to Rachel who is sitting back on the springy pavement now, running her hands over her flat stomach while tears roll down her eyes.

"Puck!" she cries when she sees him, getting up. "Puck, what are you doing?"

"Sit down, Rachel." He orders, and she does. He notices that she doesn't seem like she's in pain anymore, which is odd, but he pushed it out of his mind.

"Where are you?" asks the operator.

"The track at McKinley High School." He tell her, bending over to sit down beside Rachel. As he does so he sees the shiny, thin red puddle where Rachel had fallen. Rachel sees it too, and bites her lip.

"I'm so scared." She cries, unable to think or focus. "The baby," she whispers. The word jolts Puck. What baby? Everything – the blood, Rachel's pain, the operator's voice, the gym teacher running towards them – it all leaves him with that one word. He doesn't realize that he has spoken aloud until Rachel responds, "yours." Before he can question her or comprehend what she's told him she cries out again, grabbing his arm. He drops the phone, the call still going, and tries to focus on the here and now. The here and now is that Rachel is in way too much pain, and she's bleeding and fuck, he thinks, she's pregnant. Bleeding down there, stomach pain. He can't figure out a way that it could end well for the baby or Rachel.

"What's wrong?" the gym teacher asks, kneeling beside Rachel. "What hurts?" Puck knows that she's in too much pain to respond so he does it for her.

"She's bleeding um . . . down there." He says, "and she's in a lot of pain."

"I've never seen cramps this bad," the teacher mutters. "Rachel hunny, let's go to the nurse." She says, standing up and extending a hand to Rachel.

"It's not my period," Rachel explains, her voice wavering. "I'm pregnant." She can't believe she's telling everyone this. She can't believe that Jacob told everyone on his blogs, but her gym teacher and Puck still didn't know. She watches as all the color leaves the teachers face.

"We need to call 911," the teacher says immediately.

"I already did," Puck announces, surprising Rachel. He hands his phone to the teacher, who begins to talk to the operator. Rachel looks back at the rest of her class. They're all watching her, curious.

Another pain wraps around her and she screams at the top of her lungs, unable to control herself. She needs to end the pain, to get rid of it and screaming is the only way she knows how. Her loud voice frightens Puck, but he stays by her. Halfway through her screams are mixed with big, sobbing tears and the loud siren sound as the white, boxy van enters the school parking lot, coming as close to the football field as it could before two doctors come out, then a third dragging a stretcher.

"Don't leave me!" Rachel cries, reaching out for Puck, who backed away to let the doctors get closer.

"I'm right here," he promises, "right here." He watches as the doctors start asking her questions and she answers them in tears. They poke her stomach, asks what hurts. He watches her, pale and small, as they load her onto the stretcher and strap her in for safety. When they wheel her away he runs after them.

"You can't come with us." One of the doctors tells him roughly.

"I – I-" he can't find a way to put it into words, all Puck knows is that he needs to be there with her.

"He's the baby's father." Rachel squeaks. The doctor admits that Puck can come if he can control himself, and he agrees to even though he doesn't think he can.

--

Puck holds himself and cries in the fluorescent waiting room. They're doing tests or something and he isn't allowed back. The weight of everything is coming down on him. It's made him realize how much he loves Rachel, despite her motor mouth. He watches as Rachel's fathers come into the waiting room too and start badgering a nurse. She tells them that they can't go back, but they won't listen. They yell and fight for almost ten minutes before a doctor comes in and talk to them. They finally quiet down. As Puck watches they come to sit across from him – one father crying, the other pale with shock.

"What's wrong?" Puck asks. Her father who isn't crying shakes his head, but the one who's in tears answers.

"She lost the baby."

And Puck's world comes crashing down.

**A/N: ** Hope you liked it. Might write a second chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee. Duh.

**The Challenge: **So this is my own person challenge, making one story fit the needs of two story challenges –kaycedilla2011's Knight in Shining Armor Challenge and .Pink.'s Baby Mama Drama Challenge. Wish me luck!

**The Story Background: **The roles are reversed – Quinn never slept with Puck and isn't pregnant. Rachel and Puck dated briefly, and one of the nights they got very drunk and had sex. Rachel was so disgusted with herself for giving in that she's refused to talk to Puck since.

When The World Comes Crashing Down

**In the Third Person**

"_What's wrong?" Puck asks. Her father who isn't crying shakes his head, but the one who's in tears answers._

"_She lost the baby."_

_And Puck's world comes crashing down._

Rachel stares around the room, her eyes bleary with tears and exhaustion. The last hour has been a cacophony of tests and ambling explanations in doctor-speak that she can't comprehend. Words like _spontaneous abortion_ and _chromosomal defect_ stick like glue to her brain. How was it an abortion if she'd wanted the baby? If it was a problem with chromosomes, did that mean that this could happen again, when she actually wanted to have a baby? She can't understand it, and she doesn't want to. All she knows is that twenty minutes ago she'd had her first ultrasound, and it was nothing like she'd thought it would be. She doesn't want to think or feel because that will hurt too much. So instead she focus on the room, on memorizing all of its details. How the walls are made of a brown wallpaper that was raised in bumps. How whoever applied it hadn't been paying much attention, so most of the squares didn't line up correctly. Directly across the wall from her bed is a painting of a young mother, beautiful and glowing with pride, holding a small, perfect, baby. It mocked her. It knew what had happened to her and it was laughing. She could hear it, ringing in her ears. "This is what you wanted, isn't it?" No, she tells herself, no it isn't. "Oh, come on Berry. Without the baby you can make it on Broadway. You know this is the best thing that could have happened." But it isn't, she promises herself. She'll make it to Broadway, kid or no kid. She doesn't want it gone. Not like this.

Before she knows it tears are pouring out her eyes. She doesn't try to stop it, because that would mean admitting that she is crying.

When her fathers come in the first thing they see is her tears. She looks so small in the big hospital bed, in the lonely hospital room. The big one-size-fits-all hospital gown is far bigger than in should be, the shoulders raised past her chin because she slumped down. She's hugging herself, her arms tight around her stomach which never grew past flat, and never would. Seeing it, they remember all the hours she'd spent worrying about staying in shape throughout the pregnancy. Worrying that stretch marks and doughy leftover skin would limit the number of roles she would be able to play in the future. That, because of the various permanent changes to her body that pregnancy would have brought, she had worried that she would not be able to play young characters.

They see the old tears streaked across her face and the new ones running their own paths.

Her hair was still pulled up and sweaty from gym class.

How when they look closely they can see her shaking.

One carefully sits on the bed beside her, taking her hand in his. The other pulls up a chair, not sure what to do with himself. They don't speak, they wait for her to talk first.

"I . . ." she can't speak. She doesn't know what to say. Is there anything to say? She can't think of anything. She wants to sound confident and self-assured, but all she can muster is not depressed, and even that's a long shot. So she says the one thing that comes to mind, the only true thing she can manage to choke out. "I don't know what to do."

"That's okay." Her dad tells her, "that's perfectly normal." The room was silent for a moment, the only sound the humming of the machines.

"It's my fault," Rachel whispers into the air, trying to get rid of the guilt that's building up inside. "I did this to the baby, didn't I?"

"No, sweetie-" her father begins, but she cuts him off in her hysterics.

"They, they said it was a chromosome problem. That means it's me, doesn't it?" The tears came again, refreshed with her new pain.

"Rachel, this was out of your control," he dad told her, his voice calm but decisive. "It's awful and sad, but it's fate. You can't control it anymore than your father and I can control that we're gay. It's just how everything worked out." She shakes her head, but doesn't say anything. She doesn't believe them. She wants it to be true, but she doesn't think it is.

"Oh Chellie," her father whispers, brushing some fallen strands out of her eyes. "Someday you'll see." She fell forward, her face into his shoulder and her arms around his neck as she continues to cry. He starts to rub her back, working his way up her spine and back, more gentle than usual.

"I feel so empty." She admits once the tears are under control again.

--

"Noah?" A soft voice above him asks. He looks up at the young nurse. Normally he would be rating her in his head right about now. But he can't bring himself to do that today. "Rachel's ready to see you now." He nods and follows her through the ominous double doors and into a wide, empty hallway. The nurse yaps at him about how Rachel's very fragile right now – emotionally and physically – and he shouldn't stress her out. He promises not to and she leaves him outside of the room. He takes in a deep breath. What will he say to her? What will she look like, now that everything's changed? What is there for them? He wants a future. He loves her, he knows that he does. With or without sex – and that's a big deal to him. But he can't tell her that. That would mean being vulnerable. It might lead to rejection and embarrassment, and he can't stand that.

"Puck?" her voice, small and croaky from all her crying, reaches out to him and pulls him into the room. He doesn't know what makes him do it – it's instinct, primal and inexplicable. One second he's standing awkwardly in the doorway, the next she's in his arms.

"I love you." He whispers before he can chicken out.

"What?" she asks as he lets go, stepping back.

"I said," suddenly he's more aware of his surroundings. They're in a hospital, damn it. This isn't the time or place for an admission of love. Her dads are there and that's so unromantic. "Um, I said I love you, Berry." He watches as she blushes a deep crimson.

"I love you too." She tells him, her voice hardly a whisper. She slips her thin hand into his, and they just stand there for a moment.

Finally, Puck says "this sucks," and she nods.

"I'm sorry for how you had to find out, Noah." She says, not really looking at him. He starts to wonder why she hasn't talked to him since that night. She'd been avoiding him before she even knew she was pregnant. Why?

"Why didn't you talk to me, Berry?" he asks. There is no accusation in his voice, no anger, but she feels guilty anyways.

"I was scared."

"Not just about the baby, I mean at all. After that night, you just froze me out. Why?" He can't believe he's asking this. He's sure that if the nurse was in the room she'd be yelling at him right now that his question was too stressful.

"I broke the rules," she answers simply. "I guess some part of me thought that if I didn't talk to you, it would go away. Then I got pregnant, and I was dreading telling you." Her words come slowly, as if she can't bring herself to say them.

--

Across town Mercedes taps her pencil impatiently, her eyes glued to the clock, willing it to turn to three o'clock. Silently praying for the bell to ring early.

She and Arty had it all planned out. They were going to meet in the parking lot at three and drive over to the hospital to see Rachel and Puck. They had everything planned, now all they had to do was wait for the bell to ring and set them free. Her teacher was squawking on and on about some dumb assignment, but she wasn't paying attention, not when there were more important things going on.

Half an hour later they're all getting out of the car and into the hospital waiting room. Their group – originally just Mercedes, Arty, and Kurt had expanded to include Tina, Finn, and a surprisingly quiet Quinn.

"What room is Rachel Berry in?" Kurt asks politely. A nurse glares at him and barks some numbers at them, but when they all rush forward she stops them.

"Hey! Four visitors at a time!" she tells them. Only four? They debate for a moment – who deserves to go? Finally they decide that Finn and Quinn can go because Finn is Puck's best friend, and Quinn refuses to leave his side, she doesn't want to be left alone with the other Glee kids. The rest are a toss up – none of them is all that fond of Puck, but they aren't exactly friends with Rachel either. Tina volunteers to be left behind, and Arty falls back with her.

"Come in," Puck calls when he hears the knock at the door. He's sitting on the hospital bed beside Rachel who's drifting in and out of sleep. Her dads have gone out to get all of them lunch.

"Hey," Kurt greats, the first one in the room. Rachel waves at him, her arm falling lazily as she tries to stay awake, to focus. "How are you feeling, honey."

" 've been better." She answers, "why're you guys here?" Hearing the slur in her words, Kurt realizes that he's never seen her so out of control before. All he's ever seen is Rachel Theater-Queen Berry, the girl with prim and proper plaid skirts and perfectly scripted words. But the girl in front of him is different. She's softer and so vulnerable it almost makes him cry. Suddenly, he feels horrible for every mean thing that he's ever said to her, even if he thought she deserved it at the time.

"We came to see you," Finn tells her. He and Puck do some dorky hand shake and Puck smirks a bit, remembering when they made it up back in third grade. They'd thought they were the coolest kids back then. "How're you doin, man?" Finn asks quietly, not wanting to embarrass his friend but impatient to find out.

Puck sighs and thinks for a moment. What's happened is awful. He can't believe that he was going to be a dad. Was being the operative word. The pregnancy itself was still a shock to him, even now that it was almost completely besides the point. He guesses that he'll be okay pretty soon. It's a shock, but it's brought him closer to Rachel, which he thinks is a good thing. She'll have a harder time than he will with this – she'd actually known about the baby before this, so she had a lot more at stake to lose. He just wants to be there for her – to comfort her, to make sure that she doesn't hurt herself. To make sure that she's alright.

"I'll be okay," he answers simply, and Finn accepts that. He knows that Puck isn't one for words, but that if something was truly bothering him it would start to show pretty soon.

"These gowns are awful," the boys look up to see Kurt examining a spare hospital gown, holding it as far from his body as possible. "How can you stand to wear it?"

Rachel just shrugs. She's too tired to focus, but she likes watching them interact. It reminds her that outside the dull brown walls of her hospital room is a world that she wants to get back to. A place where she belongs, baby or not. And as her dads enter, ushering Tina and Arty along with them, and everyone descends upon the food, she promises to herself that she'll make it through. She'll do it for Puck. For Glee club. For her future on Broadway. She lays a hand over her stomach. For her future kids.

**A/N: ** I hope that was the ending you were hoping for. Sorry if there are some mistakes, I wanted to get this out to you guys! It's my birthday tomorrow, so give me an awesome review as a present!


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